LVMH To Open a Center for Craftsmanship in the Heart of Paris
Coming in 2025, the building is set to serve as a communal learning hub, housing Louis Vuitton’s Institut des Métiers d’Excellence program, as well as offering courses and workshops to the public.
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton continues to expand its ether, exploring new immersive ways to merge high fashion with other realms of the cultural zeitgeist. Its latest move was announced earlier today; in an effort to consolidate its bevy of brands while at the same time sourcing new emerging talent, LVMH is opening a dedicated space for craftsmanship in Paris’ eighth arrondissement.
Spanning a sizable 21,500 square feet, the house will be a holistic hub of craftsmanship, serving as a physical home for LVMH’s vocational training program the group founded back in 2014, Institut des Métiers d’Excellence, which has already trained over 2,700 people in seven countries, and this year saw a record intake of 700 apprentices. The house is also fully open to the public, allowing visitors to physically interact with the 280 skilled trades represented across LVMH’s 75 brands.
“You can do Zoom meetings, you can do videos. But having direct contact with makers and apprentices is inspiring,” Chantal Gaemperle, LVMH’s Executive Vice President of Human Resources/Synergies, conveyed to WWD. “The pandemic has fueled people’s need to find meaning and make something that they can understand and touch. There’s a desire to have a concrete impact and be together.”
Alexandre Boquel, Head of Development for LVMH’s Métiers d’Excellence, asserts that through this new Parisian venture, LVMH plans to hire 22,000 specialized craftspeople – including those in lesser-known fields such as gem sculpting, and eyewear manufacturing – worldwide by the end of 2025, including 8,000 in France. “This place is a tower of transmission,” he said. “It will be open to all and the promise is that the moment you walk in here, you will learn a physical gesture, whether you’re a novice, a member of the public, or a researcher in craftsmanship.”
Complete with reservable hands-on workshops from internal and external craftspeople, the house, above all, is a learning center. “It’s extremely important to talk about that, because when we talk to young people, they’re always afraid that these are jobs from 200 years ago and they won’t be able to relate,” Boquel explains. “Letting them know that these professions also use digital technology reassures them.”
Construction is slated to begin next year, with a tentative opening date coming at the end of 2025.
Elsewhere in the fashion world, check out Hypebeast’s compilation of the standout shows across SS24 Global Fashion Weeks.
